Worry

God has been beating me over the head with a certain topic this week so I thought maybe I should blog about it so that someone else out there might get as much help from it as I have. The topic is Worry. But first let me start with telling y'all about my week... it's slightly comical actually. It started with Sunday night bedtime stories with my 4 year old. Every night he picks one story book and when it is finished we read a couple pages out of his children's Bible before our bedtime prayers. Well as fate should have it the very last sentence of the last Bible story I read said "don't worry, have faith". The next morning my son woke up happily chirping "have faith, don't worry". As he was dancing around the house I opened my email. I am currently doing an online bible study through Proverbs 31 ministries and what do ya know? This week's topic... worry! So I think 'ok God, I hear you, you want me to stop worrying... got it.' Monday and Tuesday I went through my bible study and my daily devotionals going 'yeah, yeah, don't worry, pray about every, I know that already... now did all the bills get paid? do I have what we need for supper tonight? where is my grocery list? what about that deadline at work?' I sure was NOT listening to what God was trying to say to me. I was blowing Him off... HIM, GOD... goodness when will I ever learn that ignoring God NEVER works!? So this morning I wake up late... again... my kid wouldn't get out of bed... again... Naturally I started in on my usual lecture "Sam, you have GOT to hurry up, brush your teeth, take your medicine, drink your juice, get dressed, Mommy CAN NOT be late again this week!" Then I finally get him wrangled into the car and we take off and my mind is going a million miles a minute. I was thinking about things I needed to get done at work and things that needed done at home and Christmas plans and the list goes on. I tell myself, even know, that I was only 'thinking' about those things when you and I both know I was worrying... one of the things I really excel at! Well since God obviously hadn't gotten my attention earlier in the week he got a little creative today. As it turns out EVERY radio station was full of static this morning. All the way to my son's school, nothing but static! I was getting a bit frustrated. So as I was leaving the school parking lot I said aloud 'God, please let me find just ONE station that doesn't have static, please!' A moment or two later I finally found a station that would come in and it just happened to be a Christian music station. I said a little 'thanks' and happily bee-bopped on down the road. Well about a mile or a little less from my work the music went off and a pre-recorded program came on, I didn't catch the name of the man delivering the sermon, but I bet you can guess what the topic was... yep... worry! And do you know what I did? First I laughed out loud then I said 'I hear you God and I am NOT worrying, I'm fine. I'm not nearly as bad as I used to be with my worrying, so every thing is under control.' At that EXACT moment the man on the radio said "We all worry... now don't deny it, you know you do". My jaw literally dropped and I really did look up and go "seriously?!?" So of course I got back in my car and listened to the rest of the program and I want to share with y'all what I have learned this week.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?" Matthew 6:25-27

What is worry? The word worry comes from an old German word; wurgen. Which means "to strangle". Let's think about that for a minute. Before I turned my life over to Christ I worried way more than I do now. I worried about every thing, all the time. I worried to the point that I would develop stomach ulcers and be physically ill. My worry really was strangling me. I was allowing doubt and worry to creep into my mind and my heart; little by little at first, then more and more until it was consuming every aspect of my life. In the last couple of years as I have been growing closer to God and learning how to really turn my life over to him I have noticed that I worry less than before, but I still worry way too much. There are still days when I worry so much that I let myself go into a total tailspin. I get so anxious and on edge from the worry that I am mean and cranky at home. My poor 4 year old sure doesn't deserve mommy yelling about a few innocent splashes in the bathtub. My mother doesn't deserve me criticizing her for 'forgetting' the coffee at the store again... especially when I am the one who forgot to tell her we were out in the first place. But those are the things that I allow to happen when I have allowed Satan to whisper in my ear all day about what a failure I am for not keeping a cleaner home or giving stricter discipline to my child, or any number of other things.  Some times I spend all day worrying and all it does is ramp up my anxiety and turn me into a very ugly person. It quite successfully strangles my personality and turns me into some one else that I really don't like very much.

"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:28-34


As you read these verses you may be thinking, like I did at first, 'oh yeah that's all well and good but I am an adult, I have responsibilities! I can't just go along not ever worrying about any thing. If I don't worry about the bills who will pay them? If I don't worry about my kids' school projects how will they get done?'  Did you know that of the things we worry about 40% never happen. Another 30% are about unchangeable deeds of the past. 12% is focused on opinions of others, which we have no control over. 10% of our worry is over our personal health, worrying only makes that worse! Only 8% of the things we worry about concern real problems that we can influence. That makes our worry seem a mite silly, doesn't it? I feel especially silly when I remember that I have an all-mighty God who tells me not to worry at all! He provides every thing for us. He even provides an alternative to our worry! Philippians 4:6 tells us "Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything". We don't have to worry ourselves into an early grave! We can pray about the things we worry over. We can pray about our responsibilities. We can pray about EVERY thing!
1Peter 5:7 says, "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you". How amazing is that?! We have a wonderful and loving father who WANTS us to come to him with our problems. He wants to know what we worry about. He WANTS to help us! You can lay all of your worries at the foot of the cross and leave them there and our loving Father will help you. If you take time to be still and listen I assure you that He will provide an answer to your worries and anxieties. He wants to do that for you... will you let Him?

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

Jesus tells us that he wants to help you carry your worries and responsibilities. In my studies I discovered this verse in Matthew 11 and decided to dig a little deeper. When I did that I had an "ah ha" moment. A 'yoke' in Biblical terms is a double harness for two animals to pull together. Often, one harness was larger and meant for the stronger, more experience animal, while the smaller was used for the animal that was being trained. It fills me with such joy and comfort to know that I love and worship a God who values me so very much that he invites me to harness myself up next to him and allow him to pull the heaviest part of the load and teach me his ways so that I may handle more and more as I grow in my faith. I hope that this has helped someone out there reading it. I hope that it gives you comfort and hope and helps you to let go of some of your anxieties today. Let's pray for each other that we all might learn to worry just a little less in the days to come.